Crystal Storm (Falling Kingdoms #5)(53)

The king glanced at him. “Who is Kyan?”

Jonas couldn’t help but laugh. “I would truly love to stay here and strategize with you, your highness, but I grow weary of this charade. I will not work with you now, tomorrow, or ever.”

“Tell me, your highness,” Felix said slowly, “do you still have the air Kindred?”

Gaius shot him a dark look.

“The air Kindred!” his mother exclaimed. “You have it? And you didn’t tell me?”

“I do have it,” he said simply.

“Where?”

“Somewhere safe.”

Jonas tried to catch Cleo’s eye, but she seemed to be occupied in a silent conversation with the prince. As they looked at one another, all amusement disappeared from Magnus’s face.

“If this is true, and when I’m strong enough to locate my granddaughter,” the woman said, “then victory is ours for the taking.”

Once again, Jonas laughed coldly. “So that’s the key to your grand plan, is it? Princess Lucia? I think you’ll be disappointed to see what a cold, vicious, bloodthirsty snake she’s become. Then again, she is a Damora, so perhaps you’ll be neither surprised nor disappointed.”

The old woman studied him. “Jonas, is it?”

“That’s my name.”

“My name is Selia.” She drew closer, the anger in her eyes now gone, as she took his hands in hers. “Stay with us and learn more about our plans. I agree with my son that, despite our differences, we can still work together. Try to see this logically. Together we are strong.”

Could she be right? “I don’t know . . .”

“Stay,” Cleo urged. “Please consider it, at least. For me.”

He met her earnest cerulean eyes with his. “Perhaps.”

Magnus stood up. “You suggest the rebels stay here?” he said accusingly to his grandmother. “In this very inn? That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”

“I disagree,” the king said. “My mother is right. We can find a compromise. A temporary one. We have the same enemy now.”

Without even being sure of whether he was about to agree or disagree with either Damora, Jonas opened his mouth to speak, when a roar of fury broke the relative stillness of the meeting hall.

Footsteps thundered down the stairs, and Taran stormed into the meeting hall. In an instant, his furious gaze fixed upon Magnus.

Jonas’s dagger—the one the king had pulled from his chest—lay on the floor. As Jonas spotted it, so did Taran, who snatched it up in a heartbeat and closed the distance between him and the prince.

Taran arched the dagger at Magnus, but the prince caught Taran’s wrist before he made contact. Cleo let out a sharp shriek.

“You’re dead,” Taran yelled.

Magnus fought hard to keep the blade from cutting him, but Taran had taken him by surprise and possessed the vengeance-driven rage to double his strength.

Then Felix loomed behind Taran, bringing his arm around the rebel’s throat and wrenching him backward. “Don’t make me whack you again. I lost my piece of wood.”

Jonas moved to join him, wrestling the dagger from Taran’s grip.

“I’ll kill you,” Taran spat out at the prince as Felix dragged him backward. “You deserve to die for what you’ve done!”

Magnus offered no rebuttal to this. All he did was stare at the boy, his expression stony.

“I think we all deserve to die for something we’ve done,” Jonas said, relieving a bit of the tension brewing between the prince and the rebel. “Or for something we’ve failed to do.”

The prince broke his steely mask to send a glare of disbelief at Jonas. “Is it only my imagination, or did you just help to save my life?”

Jonas grimaced at the thought. “Seems that way, doesn’t it?” He glanced over at Cleo. Her expression was filled with relief. Surely the princess hadn’t wanted to see any more blood spill tonight, he thought. Not even Magnus’s. “I may be about to make a horrible mistake, one I’ll regret for the rest of my life, but I have decided to accept this alliance—this temporary alliance—until Amara has been cast from these shores.”

He waited for Ashur’s response to this. The Kraeshian prince’s expression remained grim, but he nodded. “I can agree to that. Amara needs to realize what she’s done. Even if she feels she was in the right for her actions, it was the wrong path for her to take. I will do what I can to help you.”

“Good.” Jonas then pointed at Taran, whom Felix still had in his grip. “I understand your grief and outrage, but your lust for vengeance has no place here.”

Taran scowled back at Jonas, clutching Felix’s iron bar of an arm across his throat. “You knew what I came here for before we left Kraeshia’s shores.”

“I did, but that doesn’t mean I agreed to it. Now I’ve made my decision. You will not make another attempt on Prince Magnus’s life. Not while we’re engaged in this alliance.”

“Did you hear that through your battered skull?” Felix asked Taran, his voice as rough as gravel as he clamped his arm tighter. “Or should I repeat it to you slower?”

“I abandoned a rebellion to come here and avenge my brother.”